23/11/2007

From the Feuilletons

From the Feuilletons is a weekly overview of what's been happening in the German-language cultural pages and appears every Friday at 3 pm. CET.. Here a key to the German newspapers.

Die Welt 22.11.2007

Author Rolf Schneidercalls to his fellow writers not to abandon the stage to the director's theatre of "Castorf, Thalheim, Pucher, Kriegenburg, Kimmig, Perceval e tutti quanti" without a fight. "The majority of the protagonists of director's theatre see themselves as representatives of left-wing sensibilities. These include, now as ever, a strong sense of history and its conveyance. The products of director's theatre neither deliver stories, historical insights, nor inspiration for engaged collective behaviour. They remain emanations of a somewhat reactionary, irrationalist, late bourgeois ego mania, their so-called avant-gardism is literally that, a pure question of form. As such, the directors contradict and betray themselves with their plays."

Der Freitag 23.11.2007

We need another Susan Sontagsighs Daniel Schreiber, who has just written a book about her. "However out of date this idea might sound in the Vanity Fair era from Paris Hilton to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the time seems ripe for a figure of her stature. A figure who is prepared to take risks, with brilliance, charm and ruthlessness, and to throw into the ring a hat which will only fit after provocative thought impulses and collective self-questioning. A figure who masters what Derrida once called 'the art of taking a public stand".

Die Welt 22.11.2007

In an interview with Nathan Gardals, Bernard-Henri Levy analyses the situation in Pakistan, lends his approval to Bernard Kouchner's policy on Iran Ã¢â¬â and demands that his fellow Frenchmen make Ayaan Hirsi Ali an honorary citizen, now that she is no longer protected by the Netherlands. "France is the birthplace of the Enlightenment, and we should defend this legacy. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is the embodiment of the universal freedom of reason and for this she is risking her life. We should extend to her the principle of the right to protection beyond borders. I hope that Sarkozy agrees to making her an honorary French citizen. Beyond that we ask the European Union as a whole to answer for Hirsi Ali's protection, at all times and wherever she goes. She is a citizen of Europe after all."

Neue Zürcher Zeitung 21.11.2007

Adolf Wild reports from the book fair in Algiers, where even the religious publishers have a major presence. "At least their customers are making a self-confident appearance. Bearded men are piously uniform in white kaftans, skull caps and sandals, the women heavily veiled. And even if they are probably not in the majority they are setting the atmosphere. Last year the main hall was left entirely to the religious. All the other publishers shared a second hall. The idea was to break up this dominance this time around by mixing up the stands. But now bearded men are everywhere. And this is not going down well, either at the fair or in the columns of the relatively free press. Crime author Yasmina Khadra who, as the star of the fair, is hopping from one interview to the next, is disturbed by the situation between neighbours. Everyone just looks blankly past past each other. Deep rifts in a divided society."

Die Welt 21.11.2007

Hanns-Georg Rodek joins in the chorus of critical approval for Cristian Mungius' film "4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days" about a young girl who has an abortion under the Ceaucescu regime. Rodek admires how Mungiu evokes the repressive atmosphere using purely cinematic means: "Mungiu composes it from atmospheres outside Ã¢â¬â bare trees, dimly lit crossroads, abandoned paths Ã¢â¬â and meetings with deeply corrupt individuals. Any of these with even a trace of power, will use it to humiliate the next person who comes their way.

Süddeutsche Zeitung 21.11.2007

Sonja Margolina uses the example of Alexei Ivanov, Igor Sachnovski and Olga Slavnikova to portray Russia's new literary hopes from the Urals. "It is no accident that, after a decade of chaos, the rocky Urals should emerge as the birthplace of important contemporary prose. The Soviet weapons makers hired scientific and technological excellence from all over the USSR. Their talented and risk-embracing children went their own ways, profiting from the post-Soviet chaos and from the distinctive genius loci: the lure and magic of the treasures buried deep in the mountains. In the 1990s, when governmental controls had ceased to function, the obsession with gemstones reached fever pitch and the ancient mythology of the Urals region experienced a renaissance. With its harsh climate, social and ecological problems, its impoverished underclass and criminal upper class, the Urals are near unparalleled in this vast land as a treasure trove for the literary imagination.

Die Tageszeitung 20.11.2007

Cristian Mungiu's Cannes-winning film "4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days" hit the screens in Germany this week. Bert Rebhandl extols the Romanian film portraying the post-communist world in the style of neorealism, although his all-time favourite is "California Dreamin' (Endless)" by Cristian Nemescu. "Nemescu died in a traffic accident just before the film was finished, not even thirty years old. The film shows a train pulling into the provincial town of Capalnitam where a secret mission is underway. The train bears a radar system destined for Kosovo, as support for the American airforce in the war against Serbia. On the train are two groups of soldiers, American and Romanian. But some customs forms are missing, so the local station master has no alternative but to stop the train's journey and move it to a side track."

Die Welt 20.11.2007

Author and historian Manfred Flügge discusses a book by two French journalists on Nicolas Sarkozy's cheerless victory celebrations in Fouqet's hotel on the Champs-Elysees. "The invitation list included directors of TV stations and newspapers, leading businessmen, film and sports stars. It was drawn up by Cecilia Sarkozy, who also decided which politicians to invite. She herself refused to attend the celebrations, however, just as she had refused to cast her ballot. This president would not receive her vote. A huge crowd awaited the victorious candiate that evening on the Place de la Concorde. The candidate himself, however, awaited his wife in vain. The future president brooded, gloomy as Napoleon after a pointless battle. He stared at his Blackberry like a child at his toy telephone, waiting for messages that didn't come. Cecilia, presumably, was doing the same thing in her hotel..."

Frankfurter Rundschau 20.11.2007

Almost fifty years after it was written, Vassily Grossman's novel "Life and Fate" has now appeared for the first time in a complete - more than 1,000-page - German edition. Olga Martynova wholeheartedly recommends the book, and is overwhelmed by the "inner freedom" of this work written by a former hard-line Communist: "With unspairing honesty, Grossman examines the situation in which he too found himself. Shortly before Stalin's death, the most famous Jewish artists and academics were forced to publicly condone the late Stalinist anti-Semitic hate campaign. Among the signatories: Vassily Grossman.Ã¢â¬Å

Die Tageszeitung 19.11.2007

Björn Gottstein is enthralled by the "wildly beautiful music" of German composer Sebastian Claren's new album, inspired in part by Sergei Eisenstein and Daniil Charms. "If 'Potemkin I: Baby Baby' is the most beautiful track on Claren's new portrait-CD, it's not because it harks back to Eisenstein's legendary film. It's because of the wondrous blend of the accordeon and the three string instruments. Claren composes gestures, intertwining them in such a way that the instruments clutch, grasp and pervade one another. Of course, the piece thrives on Claren's use of the rhythm of the film sequences, with which he transforms camera angles into musical close-ups and tracking shots. But all of that is secondary to the sound itself."

Die Welt 19.11.2007

Johnny Erling was at an exhibition in Beijing, and sees signs that open discussion about the Cultural Revolution may not be long in coming: "Beijing art critic Yin Shuangxi stated that China could no longer act as if an event like the Cultural Revolution simply didn't take place. He referred to art and literature from the years 1976 - 1985 that had already sought to deal with the past. These attempts were stopped, however. Yet in Yin's words, 'The time has come for a new confrontation with the past.'"

Die Welt 17.11.2007

Ex-chancellor Helmut Kohl has just published his memoirs from the years 1990 - 1994. WriterMichael Kleebergdefends Kohl against his detractors, who say his term in office was marked by prolonged stagnation. Because in that time, Kleeberg writes, Germany became hedonistic: "When I left the country, my friends were stuck in their studies or vocational training. They shacked up in small dives or shared flats, drove old Opel Kadetts, drank sour 'La Pinte' wine and held the military industrial complex responsible for the oncoming nuclear war. Then when I came back, I met Mercedes Benz drivers, house owners, golf players, Cohiba smokers and bordeaux drinkers, suddenly graced with a sense of self-irony. And they all told me how they'd suffered under intolerable boredom and stagnation of the Kohl era. All of them had just voted for Joschka Fischer, and all of them had made something of themselves in those years of boredom."

Saturday 11 - 17 December, 2010

A clutch of German newspapers launch an appeal against the criminalisation of Wikileaks. Vera Lengsfeld remembers GDR dissident Jürgen Fuchs and how he met death in his cell. All the papers were bowled over Xavier Beauvois' film "Of Gods and Men." The FR enjoys a joke but not a picnic at a staging of Stravinsky's "Rake's Progress" in Berlin. Gustav Seibt provides a lurid description of Napoleonic soap in the SZ. German-Turkish Dogan Akhanli author explains what it feels like to be Josef K. read more

Saturday 4 - Friday 10 December

Colombian writer Hector Abad defends Nobel Prize laureate Mario Vargas Llosa against European Latin-America romantics. Wikileaks dissident Daniel Domscheit-Berg criticises the new publication policy of his former employer. The Sprengel Museum has put on a show of child nudes by die Brücke artists. The SZ takes a walk through the Internet woods with FAZ prophet of doom Frank Schirrmacher. The FAZ is troubled by Christian Thielemann's unstable tempo in the Beethoven cycle. And the FR meets China Free Press publisher, Bao Pu.read more

Saturday 27 November - Friday 3 December

Danish author Frederik Stjernfelt explains how the Left got its culturist ideas. Slavenka Draculic writes about censoring Angelina Jolie who wanted to make a film in Bosnia. Daniel Cohn-Bendit talksÃÂ ÃÂ about his friendship, falling out and reconciliation with Jean-Luc Godard. Wikileaks has caused an embarrassed silence in the Arab world, where not even al-Jazeera reported on the what the sheiks really think. Alan Posener calls for the Hannah Arendt Institute in Dresden to be shut down.read more

Saturday 20 - Friday 26 November, 2010

The theatre event of the week came in a twin pack: Roland Schimmelpfennig's new play, a post-colonial "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" opened at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin and the Thalia in Hamburg. The anarchist pamphlet "The Coming Insurrection" has at last been translated into German and has ignited the revolutionary sympathies of at least two leading German broadsheets, the FAZ and the SZ. But the taz, Germany's left-wing daily, says the pamphlet is strongly right-wing. What's left and right anyway? came the reply.read more

Saturday 13 - Friday 19 November, 2010

Dieter Schlesak levels grave accusations against his former friend and colleague, Oskar Pastior, who spied on him for the Securitate. Banat-Swabian author and vice chairman of the Oskar Pastior Foundation, Ernest Wichner, turns on Schlesak for spreading malicious rumours. Die Zeit portrays the Berlin rapper Harris, and the moment he knew he was German. Dutch author Cees Nooteboom meditates on the near lust for physical torture in the paintings of Francisco de Zurburan. An exhibition in Mannheim displays the dream house photography of Julius Schulman.read more

Saturday 6 - Friday 12 November, 2010

The NZZ asks why banks invest in art. The FAZ gawps at the unnatural stack of stomach muscles in Michelangelo's drawings. The taz witnesses a giant step for the "Yugo palaver". Bernard-Henri Levy describes Sakineh Ashtiani's impending execution as a test for Iran and the west.Journalist Michael Anti talks about the healthy relationship between the net and the Chinese media. Literary academic Helmut Lethen describes how Ernst Jünger stripped the worker of all organic substances.read more

Saturday 30 October - Friday 5 November, 2010

Now that German TV has just beatifiedPope Pius XII, Rolf Hochmuth tells die Welt where he got the idea for his play "The Deputy". The FR celebrates Elfriede Jelinek's "brilliantly malicious" farce about the collapse of the Cologne City Archive. "Carlos" director Olivier Assayas makes it clear that the revolutionary subject is a figment of the imagination. The SZ returns from the Shanghai Expo with a cloying after-taste of sweet 'n' sour. And historian Wang Hui tells the NZZ that China's intellectuals have plenty of freedom to pose critical questions.read more

Saturday 23 - Friday 29 October, 2010

Author Doron Rabinovici protests against the concessions of moderate Austrian politicians to the FPÖ: recently in Vienna, children were sent back to Kosovo at gunpoint. Ian McEwan wonders why major German novelists didn't mention the Wall. The NZZ looks through the Priz Goncourt shortlist and finds plenty of writers with more bite than Houellebecq. The FAZ outs two of Germany's leading journalists who fiercely guarded the German Foreign Ministry's Nazi past. Jens-Martin Eriksen and Frederik Stjernfelt analyse the symptoms of culturalism, left and right. Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht demonstratively yawns at German debate.read more

Saturday 16 - Friday 22 October, 2010

A new book chronicles the revolt of revolting "third persons" at Suhrkamp publishers in the wild days of 1968. Necla Kelek is appalled by the speech of the very Christian Christian Wulff, the German president, in Turkey. The taz met a new faction of hardcore Palestinians who are fighting for separate sex hairdressing in Gaza. Sinologist Andreas Schlieker reports on the new Chinese willingness to restructure the heart. And the Cologne band Erdmöbel celebrate the famous halo around the frying pan.read more

Saturday 9 - Friday 15 October, 2010

The FR laps up the muscular male bodies and bellies at the Michelangelo exhibition in the Viennese Albertina. The same paper is outraged by the cowardice of the Berlin exhibition "Hitler and the Germans". Mario Vargas-Llosa remembers a bad line from Sweden. Theologist Friedrich Wilhelm Graf makes it very clear that Western values are not Judaeo-Christian values. The Achse des Guten is annoyed by the attempts of the mainstream media to dismiss Mario Vargas-Llosa. The NZZ celebrates the tireless self-demolition of Polish writer and satirist Slawomir Mrozek.read more

Saturday 2 - Friday 8 October, 2010

Nigerian writer Niyi Osundare explains why his country has become uninhabitable. German Book Prize winner Melinda Nadj Abonji says Switzerland only pretends to be liberal. German author Monika Maron is not surethat Islam really does belong to Germany. Russian writer Oleg Yuriev explains the disastrous effects of postmodernism on the Petersburg Hermitage. Argentinian author Martin Caparros describes how the Kirchners have co-opted the country's revolutionary history. And publisher Damian Tabarovsky explains why 2001 was such an explosively creative year for Argentina.read more

Saturday 25 September - Friday 1 October

Three East German theatre directors talk about the trauma of reunification. In the FAZ, Thilo Sarrazin denies accusations that his book propagates eugenics: "I am interested in the interplay of nature and nurture." Polemics are being drowned out by blaring lullabies, author Thea Dorn despairs. Author Iris Radisch is dismayed by the state of the German novel - too much idle chatter, not enough literary clout. Der Spiegel posts its interview with the German WikiLeaks spokesman, Daniel Schmitt. And Vaclav Havel's appeal to award the Nobel prize to Liu Xiabobo has the Chinese authorities pulling out their hair.read more

Saturday 18 - Friday 24 September, 2010

Herta Müller's response to the news that poet Oskar Pastior was a Securitate informant was one of overwhelming grief: "When he returned home from the gulag he was everybody's game." Theatre director Luk Perceval talks about the veiled depression in his theatre. Cartoonist Molly Norris has disappeared after receiving death threats for her "Everybody Draw Mohammed" campaign. The Berliner Zeitung approves of the mellowing in Pierre Boulez' music. And Chinese writer Liao Yiwu, allowed to leave China for the first time, explains why schnapps is his most important writing tool.read more

Saturday 10 - Friday 17 September, 2010

The poet Oskar Pastior was a Securitate informant, the historian Stefan Sienerth has discovered. Biologist Veronika Lipphardt dismisses Thilo Sarrazin'sincendiary intelligence theories as a load of codswallop. A number of prominent Muslim intellectuals in Germany have written an open letter to President Christian Wulff, calling for him to "make a stand for a democratic culture based on mutual respect." And a Shell study has revealed that Germany's youth aspire to be just like their parents.read more

Saturday 4 - Friday 10 September, 2010

Thilo Sarrazin has buckled under the stress of the past two weeks and resigned from the board of the Central Bank. His book, "Germany is abolishing itself", however, continues to keep Germany locked in a debate about education and immigration and intelligence. Also this week, Mohammed cartoonist Kurt Westergaard has been awarded the M100 prize for defending freedom of opinion. Chancellor Angela Merkel gave a speech at the award ceremony: "The secret of freedom is courage". The FAZ interviewed Westergaard, who expressed his disappointment that the only people who had shown him no support were those of his own class. read more